I recently purchased a bundle of antique school notebooks from a bookseller in England, whose late husband had collected them, and I must say that it felt rather like Christmas receiving and going through them for the first time! This Botany notebook from 1823 is the humblest looking from the outside with just a simple brown paper cover, but inside a complete delight and I think my favorite of the lot, with lovely handwritten text interspersed throughout with delicate little drawings diagramming the reproductive parts of various plants. Drawings detailing petals and stamen and pistils of wild strawberries, saffron, horse chestnut,  poppy lark-spur and the like are accompanied by notes like "The insertion of the stamens into the calyx is a certain proof that the fruit produced by the flower containing them is good and wholesome, whether it belong to the particular class or not." And lots of use of the word empalement!

6 1/2" 8 3/8 closed. Pages measure 6 1/4" x 8 1/8". 8 laid paper pages filled on both sides (making 16 pages of text) plus one blank page at the end. Cover shows wear around the edges and an old water stain along the bottom that does not run through. Simple hand-sewn string binding is still holding tight. Inside pages show minor age toning and a few small stains along bottom edge on the first few pages, but overall are in very very good condition, clean and crisp and clear.